Romanian fruit pickers !!!!
Discussion
Firstly, and I stress, I don't have any issue with Eastern European folks !!!! What I do have an issue with at the moment is hearing on the news that people are being flown in from Romania especially to pick the fruit and veg. Why, when people are in dire need of finances at the moment or students not attending universities or colleges, are these people not doing this. This makes my blood boil to think we are above picking fruit in these desperate times and possibly facing mass unemployment very soon.
Two primary reasons I think... The Romanian teams are known to the farms, need no training, are a known quantity in terms of quality of work and wilingness to tolerate living and working conditions for a period of time to take money back to thier families at the end of the season. Individual locals will require training, are an unknown quantity, and not willing to tolerate the conditions.
monty999 said:
Firstly, and I stress, I don't have any issue with Eastern European folks !!!! What I do have an issue with at the moment is hearing on the news that people are being flown in from Romania especially to pick the fruit and veg. Why, when people are in dire need of finances at the moment or students not attending universities or colleges, are these people not doing this. This makes my blood boil to think we are above picking fruit in these desperate times and possibly facing mass unemployment very soon.
From a news article:Stephanie Hildon, who runs Langmead Herbs in Chichester on almost 3,000 hectares of land, told Sky News her Romanian workforce is loyal and committed. "If I was going to be recruiting from the UK and taking on people that are unfortunately out of work that would require a huge amount of retraining to get these people up to speed," she said.
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-jobs-row-as...
Seems qualifications, loyality and commitment are missing.
monty999 said:
Firstly, and I stress, I don't have any issue with Eastern European folks !!!! What I do have an issue with at the moment is hearing on the news that people are being flown in from Romania especially to pick the fruit and veg. Why, when people are in dire need of finances at the moment or students not attending universities or colleges, are these people not doing this. This makes my blood boil to think we are above picking fruit in these desperate times and possibly facing mass unemployment very soon.
Presume you will be the first to volunteer?Seriously it's partly that people don't want to do it but also not quite so simple. Firstly, whether this technically rules you out of fruit picking I don't know, but a lot of people have heard you're not supposed to work at all if furloughed. I think this means in the job you're furloughed from but the communication hasn't been clear.
Secondly, location, if you are out of work but living in the middle of a city it's pretty unlikely you are going to go to East Anglia and pick fruit without a major organised scheme incentivising you to do so. Even less likely if you have children to look after who aren't allowed to go to grandparents.
There is definitely unwillingness though. As a student I did a few weeks in a boring, repetitive minimum wage factory job. Locals would often just walk off the line half way through a shift because they didn't like it, one even had the cheek to ask for his half day's wages, via his mum who still worked there. The Eastern Europeans, OTOH, just cracked on with it. Not sure if it's lifestyle or pay, would they have stuck around for more money? At some point they would I think, it's just where's the level?
Edited by TomTheTyke on Friday 17th April 14:19
Some years ago my brother ran a vegatable farm in Cornwall that was predominantly staffed by Eastern Europeans. They worked hard, did a good job, kept their heads down and didn't cause any problems at all.
The deputy manager was a local and he was a feckless imbecile that didn't get a great deal done at all. One several occaisions I went down there to visit, he was either late or didn't come in at all because he was hungover.
And that was the only local they could find that was willing to work there.
The deputy manager was a local and he was a feckless imbecile that didn't get a great deal done at all. One several occaisions I went down there to visit, he was either late or didn't come in at all because he was hungover.
And that was the only local they could find that was willing to work there.
Bodo said:
monty999 said:
Firstly, and I stress, I don't have any issue with Eastern European folks !!!! What I do have an issue with at the moment is hearing on the news that people are being flown in from Romania especially to pick the fruit and veg. Why, when people are in dire need of finances at the moment or students not attending universities or colleges, are these people not doing this. This makes my blood boil to think we are above picking fruit in these desperate times and possibly facing mass unemployment very soon.
From a news article:Stephanie Hildon, who runs Langmead Herbs in Chichester on almost 3,000 hectares of land, told Sky News her Romanian workforce is loyal and committed. "If I was going to be recruiting from the UK and taking on people that are unfortunately out of work that would require a huge amount of retraining to get these people up to speed," she said.
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-jobs-row-as...
Seems qualifications, loyality and commitment are missing.
If anything, she's saying that she won't even give UK people the chance to work for her.
Road2Ruin said:
I would happily do it if I needed work, just most UK workers would rather claim benefits. I have a friend who runs a fruit farm in Somerset and they advertise every year locally and last year they got one person. He lasted two days.
Cool story, but what do you think it really tells us? Nothing, really.I was thinking about this before, if I was out of work and lived near enough I'd be all over this rather than not working. I don't understand the mentality of people who can't be arsed to work, but unfortunately accept there are plenty of them and there's no point letting it get to you cos they don't give a stuff.
Bodo said:
monty999 said:
Firstly, and I stress, I don't have any issue with Eastern European folks !!!! What I do have an issue with at the moment is hearing on the news that people are being flown in from Romania especially to pick the fruit and veg. Why, when people are in dire need of finances at the moment or students not attending universities or colleges, are these people not doing this. This makes my blood boil to think we are above picking fruit in these desperate times and possibly facing mass unemployment very soon.
From a news article:Stephanie Hildon, who runs Langmead Herbs in Chichester on almost 3,000 hectares of land, told Sky News her Romanian workforce is loyal and committed. "If I was going to be recruiting from the UK and taking on people that are unfortunately out of work that would require a huge amount of retraining to get these people up to speed," she said.
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-jobs-row-as...
Seems qualifications, loyality and commitment are missing.
monty999 said:
Firstly, and I stress, I don't have any issue with Eastern European folks !!!! What I do have an issue with at the moment is hearing on the news that people are being flown in from Romania especially to pick the fruit and veg. Why, when people are in dire need of finances at the moment or students not attending universities or colleges, are these people not doing this. This makes my blood boil to think we are above picking fruit in these desperate times and possibly facing mass unemployment very soon.
Why didn't you volunteer, or suggest it to people you know?https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000h7td
There's a good explanation in this clip. R4 Farming Today this morning.
You can see the farmer's point.
There's a good explanation in this clip. R4 Farming Today this morning.
You can see the farmer's point.
eccles said:
Bodo said:
monty999 said:
Firstly, and I stress, I don't have any issue with Eastern European folks !!!! What I do have an issue with at the moment is hearing on the news that people are being flown in from Romania especially to pick the fruit and veg. Why, when people are in dire need of finances at the moment or students not attending universities or colleges, are these people not doing this. This makes my blood boil to think we are above picking fruit in these desperate times and possibly facing mass unemployment very soon.
From a news article:Stephanie Hildon, who runs Langmead Herbs in Chichester on almost 3,000 hectares of land, told Sky News her Romanian workforce is loyal and committed. "If I was going to be recruiting from the UK and taking on people that are unfortunately out of work that would require a huge amount of retraining to get these people up to speed," she said.
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-jobs-row-as...
Seems qualifications, loyality and commitment are missing.
If anything, she's saying that she won't even give UK people the chance to work for her.
TomTheTyke said:
Presume you will be the first to volunteer?
Seriously it's partly that people don't want to do it but also not quite so simple. Firstly, whether this technically rules you out of fruit picking I don't know, but a lot of people have heard you're not supposed to work at all if furloughed. I think this means in the job you're furloughed from but the communication hasn't been clear.
Secondly, location, if you are out of work but living in the middle of a city it's pretty unlikely you are going to go to East Anglia and pick fruit without a major organised scheme incentivising you to do so. Even less likely if you have children to look after who aren't allowed to go to grandparents.
There is definitely unwillingness though. As a student I did a few weeks in a boring, repetitive minimum wage factory job. Locals would often just walk off the line half way through a shift because they didn't like it, one even had the cheek to ask for his half day's wages, via his mum who still worked there. The Eastern Europeans, OTOH, just cracked on with it. Not sure if it's lifestyle or pay, would they have stuck around for more money? At some point they would I think, it's just where's the level?
If, firstly, I needed the money to put food on the table for my family or secondly lived locally to a fruit/veg farm requiring pickers, then yes you're damn right I'd be there.Seriously it's partly that people don't want to do it but also not quite so simple. Firstly, whether this technically rules you out of fruit picking I don't know, but a lot of people have heard you're not supposed to work at all if furloughed. I think this means in the job you're furloughed from but the communication hasn't been clear.
Secondly, location, if you are out of work but living in the middle of a city it's pretty unlikely you are going to go to East Anglia and pick fruit without a major organised scheme incentivising you to do so. Even less likely if you have children to look after who aren't allowed to go to grandparents.
There is definitely unwillingness though. As a student I did a few weeks in a boring, repetitive minimum wage factory job. Locals would often just walk off the line half way through a shift because they didn't like it, one even had the cheek to ask for his half day's wages, via his mum who still worked there. The Eastern Europeans, OTOH, just cracked on with it. Not sure if it's lifestyle or pay, would they have stuck around for more money? At some point they would I think, it's just where's the level?
Edited by TomTheTyke on Friday 17th April 14:19
Exactly how much training is required, I really don't know, but wouldn't expect it to be too intense even for the least of intellectuals.Work ethic is the most difficult skill to create but cash injection may give a better incentive.The government should step in at least to make it more financially attractive in an attempt to keep the money within our economy rather than seeing it overseas.
towser44 said:
I was thinking about this before, if I was out of work and lived near enough I'd be all over this rather than not working. I don't understand the mentality of people who can't be arsed to work, but unfortunately accept there are plenty of them and there's no point letting it get to you cos they don't give a stuff.
Hard workers can't help but let the situation get to themThis situation is another example of what's gone wrong in the UK
Once upon a time UK people that had gone through an apprenticeship and then added several years experience to it were respected for their skills and knowledge
Knowledge means nothing anymore, job status in the office is what's important
People used to not mind hard work
These days people are classed as being productive when sat in an office or playing the stock exchange all day
People can't be getting dirty for a few pound
The country is in a proper mess
Kids used to do plenty of fruit picking for spare cash
Tell the kids of today this and.........
Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff